Women subjected to violence face inactive support system, says book on global menace

Women subjected to violence in India have to face an inactive support system and dismissive response by law enforcement agencies, says an Indo-Canadian journalist who has brought out a book on the global menace.

Ajit Jain's "Violence against Women - All Pervading", brought out by Toronto-based Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women, features views of top academicians, social activists and political leaders on the issue. It is a follow-up of a symposium held in Toronto in the aftermath of the December 16, 2012 gangrape in Delhi. The book is dedicated to the victim of this incident.

The author says violence against women is a global menace. "The Delhi gangrape incident of December 16, 2012 was very disturbing. But then I started studying as to what's happening elsewhere. Is this violence against women India-specific as the impression people widely developed because of the headlines in the international media? Then I discovered no violence against women is India-specific," he told PTI.

UN studies show one in 3 women are at least once in their lifetime raped, brutalised, assaulted.

Citing some statistical information, he says on an average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner. "In 2009, 67 women were murdered by a current or former spouse or boyfriend," he says.

The author suggests if a woman is violated, there should be an active support system that should help her, induce her to report to the police. "The sad part is that in countries like India, police are corrupt to the core. Police won't easily take down women's complaints against men (father, brother, husband, boy friend or a neighbour). They laugh at them and invariably gives them run around," he says.